'''Incarnations of Immortality''' is an eight-book fantasy series by PiersAnthony. It tells the story of [[GodJob mortals who assume various immortal offices]], becoming the AnthropomorphicPersonification of varying concepts. The first five books deal with that person's life as he or she assumes the office, as well as his or her first encounter with {{Satan}}, who attempts to use their lack of experience to his own advantage. The series was originally conceived as being only five books long, but by popular demand the author wrote three more. The sixth book tells the story of Satan, and offers a PerspectiveFlip on some of the events of the previous books. The seventh book deals with a reoccurring character trying to save her baby's soul, and in turn, becoming the Incarnation of good (God). The last book deals with how Nox, aka Night, assumed her Office and became heavily involved in Satan's XanatosGambit (explaining some plot from prior books along the way). By the end of the series, all of the Incarnations are related to one another somehow.

The books and the incarnation featured in them are, in order:* ''On a Pale Horse'' featuring Zane as Thanatos, the Incarnation of Death* ''Bearing an Hourglass'' featuring Norton as Chronos, the Incarnation of Time* ''With a Tangled Skein'' featuring Niobe as Clotho and Lachesis (at different times), aspects of the Incarnation of Fate* ''Wielding a Red Sword'' featuring Mym as Mars, the Incarnation of War* ''Being a Green Mother'' featuring Orb as Gaea, the Incarnation of Nature* ''For Love of Evil'' featuring Parry as Satan, the Incarnation of Evil* ''...and Eternity'' featuring mysterious stuff about God, the Incarnation of Good* ''Under a Velvet Cloak'', which is largely a prequel to the main series, featuring Kerena as Nox, the Incarnation of Night----!!The series makes use of the following tropes:* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: In ''For Love of Evil'', Satan tries to meet up with the other Incarnations and make friends. With the exception of Chronos, they treat him utterly like crap, to the point of watching while Gaea [[BlackComedyRape has him raped by an ape]].** BullyingADragon: His retaliation against Gaea turns out to be hitting Europe with ''the Black Death'' [[SinsOfOurFathers after she retires and is replaced with an inexperienced successor]], which ends up nuking most of Europe and teaching Satan a lesson in uncontrolled revenge.* AlternateHistory: Many minor details about the world are changed because of the existence of magic and divinities. Iraq and Iran are called Babylonia and Persia (but still have a war), India is a collection of unrelated sultanates, Islam is not mentioned (though Allah and Mohammed do receive very brief references in ''For Love of Evil''), and "pigskin" (football) uses magic as part of the game, is measured in feet instead of yards, and is an [[AuthorAppeal all-female game.]]** Also, some historical events are changed in-series, up to and including [[spoiler: Satan manipulating Chronos into preventing WorldWarII and the Holocaust]].* AnthropomorphicPersonification: Pretty much the basis of the entire story.* ArrogantKungFuGuy: The martial arts master Samurai in ''With a Tangled Skein''.* ArtisticLicenseReligion: In ''Wielding a Red Sword'', Mym says that the closest equivalent to Satan in Hindu terms would be Shiva. In actuality, while Shiva is "the Destroyer", he is also a beloved and heroic deity revered by all Hindus. He's the destroyer ''of evil'', the guy who kills demons, and thus could hardly be more opposite to the traditionally held image of Satan (As to Satan himself in this series...[[NecessaryEvil it's complicated]]).* AuthorAppeal: Piers Anthony has been vocal in the past about his belief that sex between adults and minors isn't really as bad as it's made out to be. This is showcased in ''...And Eternity'' when Vita, a fifteen-year-old prostitute, falls in love with a judge in his fifties and they end up in a sexual relationship. It also appears in the description of the tannana in ''Being A Green Mother'', with girls as young as six performing it and Orlene musing that she can understand why many Gypsy girls are sexually active before puberty even sets in.* BecauseYouWereNiceToMe: The reason Satan helps out JHVH [[spoiler: by taking down Adolf Hitler, in order to end the persecution of Jews in WorldWarII.]]* BestHerToBedHer: Asian Clotho in ''With a Tangled Skein''; she only falls in love with Samurai after he defeats her in combat and shows her her place.** That being said, she was using the Sword of War in the fight, and was therefore literally incapable of losing. She forfeited the match so that Samurai wouldn't be humiliated in front of his students.* BetterTheDevilYouKnow: Literally. After [[spoiler: Parry abdicates his position as Satan]], the other Incarnations agree that they vastly preferred him to his replacement.* BigBad: ''Under a Velvet Cloak'' reveals that the Incarnation of Darkness, Erebus, has been working on destroying all of reality for eons, out of a combination of {{Revenge}}, ItAmusedMe, and megalomania.* BiTheWay: Nicolai. Not only was he such a WholesomeCrossdresser in his youth that the master of the house stole a kiss from "her," he states that whether his partner is a man or a woman is less important than playing his role to perfection.* BreastAttack: Through electrocution.* CelestialBureaucracy: Purgatory is like this.* AChatWithSatan: All of the protagonists have conversations with Satan, most quite casual.* ChekhovsGunman: Quite a few. Most notably Orlene, who serves only to set up Norton into [[DeathByOriginStory becoming Chronos by dying]], then becomes the main character of ''...And Eternity.''** Nicolai appears in ''Being a Green Mother'' as someone Orb meets during her travels (and is left to find a rich adoptive family for Orlene), but in ''...And Eternity'' he becomes an aspect of Fate.* ChildrenAreInnocent: Mostly. Oddly enough, children can be "tainted" by their circumstances, in which case they are not evil but are still treated as such by the system.* ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve: The Incarnations of good and evil gain power by how many people believe in them. When religions fade away, so do their respective Incarnations of good and evil.* CompletelyMissingThePoint: When Zane was still human, he was a photographer. He discovered how to take pictures of people's auras. He became depressed when his customers ignored the beautiful auras and only bought his photos because a side-effect of the aura-capturing technique was that the [[SexSells subject appears naked]]. * CoolCar: Death's car, Mortis.* CoolHorse: Death's steed, Mortis. War's steed, Werre.* CoolOldGuy: Nicolai and JHVH.* CueTheFlyingPigs[=/=]BrickJoke: [[OurGhostsAreDifferent Orlene]], when inside the body of one of the flying saucer hostages, has to tell the terrorists that the captain refuses to surrender control to them. The person she's possessing is too frightened to do so, so Orlene does it for her with the rather ballsy, "when God kisses Satan and the Incarnations applaud, maybe then". [[spoiler:And then it happens at the end, once she is made God(dess) and kisses Parry in thanks for him making it all possible.]]* CuteGhostGirl: Molly Malone, Jolie, and Orlene.* DeathTakesAHoliday: ''On a Pale Horse'', naturally.** At the end of ''...And Eternity,'' [[spoiler:Death briefly takes a holiday again - and so do all the other Incarnations, for one hour, while they all select a new Incarnation of Good.]]* DisproportionateRetribution: Part of Satan's desire to take power from God is because he discovered that this is the case in Hell: People are damned for relatively minor sins or sins that were justified under the circumstances. (For example, there's a guy in there whose only sin was stealing food so that his family would have enough to eat.) He wants to change this situation, but is unable to do so because changing the definitions of good and evil requires him and God to reach a mutual agreement, which is impossible [[spoiler: because God isn't paying attention.]]* DontFearTheReaper: Zane is unique among Incarnations of Death in that he [[spoiler: has compassion]] and does his best to help people in his job, and hang the rules. Later on, he learns to work with the other Incarnations and stops saving everyone he can, but he still can chat with a dying person if it'll ease their pain. [[spoiler: This trait is ''why'' Fate manipulated him into becoming Death.]] * ElectricTorture: Luna gets this. Her kidnappers strip her topless and then zap her bared nipples. It's made explicit that it's very painful.* EveryoneIsRelated: By the ending, every Incarnation is either a member of the Kaftan family by birth, by marriage, or by fathering a bastard on a family member.* FisherKing: Gaea's feelings affect the planet. It rains when she cries, and her anger can cause earthquakes.* ForgotICouldChangeTheRules: Played with. In the first novel, it isn't so much that Death forgot that he could change the rules; it's that he didn't know that he could (in fact, he didn't even ''know'' half of them), causing infant souls born under questionable circumstances to go to Purgatory and later triggering [[spoiler: an end to all death worldwide because he refused to take one soul]]. At the end of the book, he realizes that it's his prerogative to do what he damn well pleases as the Incarnation of Death, [[spoiler: and that all of Satan's rulesmongering didn't mean a damn thing. He also changes the rules regarding infant souls, sending one to heaven instead of Purgatory in the end.]] The last is [[{{Retcon}} retconned]] in later books, as Death is acting outside of ''his'' authority.* FoxChickenGrainPuzzle: Presented as a Demon-Rapist-Girl Puzzle, with three women and three demons, and if the demons outnumber the women at any point they'll be raped.* FriendlyEnemy: [[spoiler: Satan]] in the last book is this to Orlene. He tries to tempt her to do evil because [[PunchClockVillain that's his job]], but otherwise he does his best to help her with her quest, and neither side holds grudges.* GambitPileup: Satan, various Fates, Norton as Chronos, Nox, and the Archangel Gabriel have all set up {{Xanatos Gambit}}s and [[GambitRoulette Roulettes]], some hundreds of years long, to manipulate each other, the other Incarnations, and any mortal who might be useful in the final conflict, until everything finally comes crashing together in ''...And Eternity''. [[spoiler: Subverted in the end, everyone won. And I mean everyone. Except Erebus.]]* GenderBender: Orlene getting temporarily turned into a man as described in ImAManICantHelpIt below. There's also Nicolai turning into a woman when he becomes an aspect of Fate. * GIFT: Possibly predicted in an older form, and alluded to, in ''Bearing an Hourglass'', when Chronos encounters a wall covered in graffiti, and muses that perhaps, in a perfectly free society, people do behave badly. He concludes that both the best and worst in society are equally necessary.* GodJob: How the Incarnations work.* GodsHandsAreTied: ** The fact that Satan's agents frequently interfere in the mortal world, while God apparently does nothing, is initially attributed to God and the Devil having made an agreement to leave the mortal world alone, which the Devil of course immediately broke but God still keeps. (This eventually turns out not to be true, but it's initially portrayed as a straight example of the trope.)** At one point, Fate mentions that she cannot physically intervene when meddling in a tangled skein, because that leads to [[RealityBreakingParadox unmanageable snarls]]. If physical intervention (as opposed to simply cutting and pulling threads) is necessary, she needs to use agents to do it.** An Incarnation cannot directly oppose another Incarnation within the latter's sphere without their consent. For example, Chronos cannot rewind time unless ''all'' Incarnations have agreed (including Satan, who can be awfully sticky about it), because otherwise he's stepping on everyone else's past actions. Satan ''does'' do this, but even then, the Incarnation in question has usually given their implied consent (for a very loose definition of "consent") or doesn't know the rules.* TheGodsMustBeLazy: Or in {{God}}'s case, [[spoiler: zonked out on his own Divine Presence.]]* GoneHorriblyRight: Lucifer sent Lilah to [[GoSeduceMyArchnemesis turn Parry, leader of the Dominicans and his deadliest foe, to evil]]. He succeeded...and Parry promptly overthrew him. Remember, Prince of Darkness, EvilIsNotAToy.* GoodIsNotNice: Thanatos develops a bit of this by ''And Eternity''. It's the nature of his job as Death; he starts referring to children's deaths in callous, technical terminology, like a surgeon who's been in the business for a while.* GoSeduceMyArchnemesis: In addition to Lucifer's attempt in book 6, described above, in book 4, Satan tries sending Lilah to seduce and corrupt the new Mars. Once again, it ends up backfiring.* TheGreatestStoryNeverTold: Satan prevents Hitler's rise to power, and only JHVH and himself remembers this. Orlene, Jolie, and Vita eventually learn about this.* TheGrimReaper: Subverted, as it's only a costume Thanatos wears.* HaveYouSeenMyGod: The Christian God, who is the current Incarnation of Good, is inattentive because [[spoiler:He is contemplating His own goodness to the exclusion of all else. In ''...and Eternity'', He is impeached and replaced by a new God.]]* TheHecateSisters: Fate* HeroicBastard: Orlene is the bastard daughter of Mym and Orb, but she is a woman of unimpeachable goodness. This becomes a major plot point in ''...And Eternity'', as she comes to represent everything that's wrong with the setting's existing definitions of morality.* HighHeelFaceTurn: Lilah, ''twice''.* HistoricalPersonPunchline: Or literary person, depending on viewpoint--Lila(h) turns out to be the Lilith of the Bible, while Erebus is revealed to be Cain.* HistoricalRapSheet: Satan engineered the Black Plague by tricking Gaia. He later regretted how far it went, and the experience taught him his responsibility as the [[GodJob Incarnation of Evil]]. Inverted later as he tricks Chronos into averting the Holocaust and World War II as a favor to [=JHVH=] though this costs him his friendship with subsequent Incarnations of Time who till then were the only ones friendly to him.* HitlersTimeTravelExemptionAct: [[AvertedTrope Averted]]. To repay a debt to the Jewish God JHVH, Satan convinces Chronos through ReversePsychology to prevent Hitler's rise to power. While there is still a war that Germany starts, it is as the restored Holy Roman Empire, and the Holocaust never happens.* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Happens to Satan in book 3 by the Fates. By his own admission, even the Master of Lies can be fooled.* HookerWithAHeartOfGold: Vita from ''...And Eternity''.* HornyDevils: Lilah and Jezebel. Not to mention the various male demons encountered, several of which attempt to rape female protagonists. [[spoiler:But for a subversion, note that the Angel Gabriel is severely tempted to have a sexual encounter in ''Under a Velvet Cloak'', and eventually does succumb after the victory over Erebus.]]* HorsemenOfTheApocalypse: The Incarnation Of War is accompanied by Famine, Conquest, Slaughter, and Pestilence.** The Incarnation Of Death, of course. The first book lampshades it with it's title being a paraphrase of the bible: Death rides ''On a Pale Horse''.* IHateYouVampireDad: Plays a ''major'' role in the events of ''Under a Velvet Cloak'', which leads to all the Incarnations being affected in some way.* ImAManICantHelpIt: In ''...And Eternity'', Orlene is transformed into a man and immediately becomes an aggressive, misogynistic, testosterone-charged boor, attempting to rape her friend Jolie. Upon having her female form restored, she and Jolie are horrified and conclude that "Men have passions that women do not", and that the reason all men are not constantly overwhelmed with violent lust is that "they have learned control".** Possibly subverted, as both Orlene and Jolie were transformed into a ''specific'' man (the grown version of Orlene's child) to show what his genetic affliction would do to him.* IncrediblyLamePun: Because [[spoiler: Orlene]] is a ghost when she assumes the Office of Good, Vita points out that this makes her a Holy Ghost.* InterruptedSuicide: [[spoiler:Zane is interrupted by Thanatos and kills him, claiming the office.]]** Also [[spoiler: the Asian Clotho in ''With a Tangled Skein ''; she is preparing to commit suicide when the Fates swoop in and make her Clotho.]]* InvincibleHero: ** Zane in ''On a Pale Horse''. Justified because of the logical paradox that is in play at the time: When he took the office of Death, his soul became temporarily balanced between good and evil. As such, if he were to die, Death would have to collect his soul...and he's Death. Since collecting his own soul is physically impossible, he can't die. Death in general has this. At the end of the book it's revealed that the cloak is more of a MagicFeather: Death can only die if he (at least subconsciously) desires to (Which can happen as Death is guaranteed entry into heaven). As such, the only way for Death to die is if he wants it (Essentially it requires Death to kill Death).** Except for Chronos (who exists primarily during a fixed period of time) and Mars (who dies if world peace ever breaks out), no Incarnation can be deposed if they don't want to retire. [[spoiler: God can only be impeached because He's too self-absorbed to even notice the impeachment proceeding; if He were defending His turf, then deposing him would be impossible.]]* IronicEcho: In book two, when Norton has confronted Satan and undone his latest scheme to take over, and threatens to keep interfering until Satan gives in and fixes the timeline.-->'''Satan''': What do you want?-->'''Norton''': Need you ask, sirrah? [[labelnote:Explanation]]This was the CatchPhrase for [[PrincessClassic Excelsia]], one of the actors in the mock-adventure serial/virtual novels Norton gets sent into to entice him into going along with Satan's plans, and keep him from interfering in various schemes of the Prince of Lies. (And who also, incidentally, [[BecomingTheMask had grown to love her role so much]] [[LostInCharacter that she believed she actually]] ''[[LostInCharacter was]]'' [[LostInCharacter Excelsia]], and thus urged Norton to do the right thing, [[IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy even if it meant leaving her to go fight Satan]].) In other words, Norton was doing a CallBack to the very thing which was supposed to make him Satan's pawn but [[HoistByHisOwnPetard had instead led to him coming back to be a hero]].[[/labelnote]] * LivingMacGuffin: Luna. Niobe to a lesser extent, before she stops being a chess piece and starts playing.* LivingMotionDetector: Zane fights a demon like this in the first book.* LoopholeAbuse: (Spoilers for the end of ''...And Eternity'') [[spoiler:AintNoRule that says a ghost can't hold office as an Incarnation. The rule only limits eligibility to those who remain in the mortal realm, which includes the ghosts.]]* TheLostLenore: Jolie is this to Parry (and later becomes his MoralityPet). Orlene was also this to Norton.* LoveRedeems: [[spoiler: After falling in love with Orb, Satan [[strike: tries to resign his position]] kills himself, thereby abdicating the Office of Evil. It doesn't stick, because everyone prefers Satan to his replacement and the Incarnations fish him out of his cell.]]* LouisCypher: [[spoiler: Natasha - Ah Satan, Backwards]]* MagicFeather: [[spoiler: All the Incarnations' implements function more or less like this. They're symbolic of the Incarnations' power, but mostly act as tools of visualization and control; Death doesn't need his cloak for invulnerability, and Gaea and Satan use their music as an easy focus for their techniques. The only apparent exceptions are the skeins of fate, and possibly the Hourglass.]]* MagicMusic: The Llano, a song that can do strange things. Nature and Satan use it.** Earlier, Orb learns the ''tanana,'' which is an erotic Gypsy dance with surprising efficacy on nonhuman entities (although this is more likely the result of Orb's nascent powers), and uses it on her quest to find the Llano.** Cedric Kaftan and his cousin Pacian (Orb's father) both have an inherited brand of magic that causes invisible orchestras to spring up with sparkly backing tracks whenever they sing. [[spoiler: Niobe instantly falls in love with each of them in turn after hearing their singing.]]* MerlinSickness: Chronos. Understandbly, this gets pretty confusing for other characters. In one scene in ''For Love of Evil'', Satan goes to visit Chronos for advice and finds that the new Chronos doesn't like him. When the new Chronos rails on Satan for his various atrocities, Satan has no clue what he's talking about.* MoreExpendableThanYou: When Cedric discovers a plot to kill Niobe, he decides to make the HeroicSacrifice by taking her place without telling her.* NakedFirstImpression: Zane meets Luna when she is teleported out of the shower.* NatureLover: Niobe in ''With a Tangled Skein''* NobleDemon: Pretty much [[spoiler: Satan]] in a nutshell. His reason for [[spoiler: the war against God is that the system for determining whether a person goes to Heaven or Hell is flawed, and he gets ''too many good people.'' He makes a deal with the Archangel Gabriel to keep the war from harming mortals. He is friends with ''JHVH'', the previous Incarnation of ''Good''.]]* NoNameGiven:** With a very few exceptions, none of the Incarnations other than the specific protagonists of each novel are ever named.** Despite getting a fair amount of screentime, Orb's bandmates in ''Being a Green Mother'' are only ever referred to as "the guitarist", "the drummer", etc.* NowILayMeDownToSleep: In ''On a Pale Horse'', Death decides to read his mail against the advice of his household staff, and one of the letters is from a girl who is afraid that she'll die in her sleep because her mother makes her recite this prayer before going to bed.* NowItsMyTurn: When Cedric confronts four drunk college students who were attempting to rape Niobe, he deliberately allows them to strike him first, [[PunchPunchPunchUhOh which has no effect]]. He then grins and says, "Now you have had the first blow, I'll have the last," and proceeds to lay out all four of them in seconds.* {{Omniglot}}: The previous Mars before Mym.* OmniscientMoralityLicense: When Zane calls Fate out for wrecking his life in ''On a Pale Horse'' to force him into the job of Incarnation of Death, and asks her what right she has to meddle with his life, she calmly puts him down. He doesn't take this very well, but in later books he's become more-or-less used to working as an Incarnation, though he remains one of the most compassionate of the bunch.-->'''Lachesis''': By the right of necessity. All mankind will be damned if we don't meddle.* OneDegreeOfSeparation: Everyone's related! [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] by the GambitPileup revealed in the later books.* PerfectlyArrangedMarriage* PrettyInMink: An heiress in the beginning of the first book wears a "magic mink coat".* TheProblemWithFightingDeath: Well, sort of. If you kill Death you get his job -- whether or not it was intentional or you want the burden. Although in that case you can just find someone more willing and let them kill you.* PublicDomainCharacter: Thanks to how long-lived Nox turns out to be (Kerena was from the Middle Ages), both Morgan le Fey and the original Gawain of the Round Table (ancestor of the one from Norton and Orlene's backstory) appear in the last novel.* PunchClockVillain: Satan, particularly as characterized in the later books, is just doing a dirty but necessary job in tempting humans to sin and punishing the guilty. Most of his predecessors really ''were'' genuinely evil, leading to some really ugly [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer office politics]] before [[spoiler: Orlene becomes Goddess and patches things up.]]* ReallyGetsAround: Is there anyone Nox won't sleep with?* RedHerring: The great deal of time in ''...and Eternity'' spent on developing him, his backstory, and his relationships with the other characters (especially the Incarnations) sets the reader up to think Judge Roque Scott will be the new God; this was in fact Orb's intention when she set Jolie to watching Vita (whom Fate knew would encounter him), and it's what all the other Incarnations think too, and even vote for. Even Satan is willing to elect him due to his sinful nature. But [[RefusalOfTheCall he turns them down flat]]--mostly to be with Vita, but also because he is too afraid of screwing up the cosmos as God. [[spoiler:Orlene is elected instead.]] Aided by the [[AlwaysMale built-in gender expectations]] for God (despite God [[NoBiologicalSex not explicitly having a gender]] in the Bible, the male pronouns are still used, after all), although having Nicolai become an Aspect of Fate should have been a big clue for other possible subversions. * ReroutedFromHeaven: The system for processing souls is rather messed up, due to God slacking off. Zane, the new Death, is unsatisfied with babies going to Purgatory, and manages to get the system adjusted to send them to Heaven instead. Later on, when Parry takes over running hell in ''For Love Of Evil'', he realizes a large portion of souls arriving there don't deserve it, and tries to show the AHellOfATime instead. Eventually he instigates a {{Plan}} to get God replaced.* ResetButton: The ability to push this (albeit only under the most dire and necessary of circumstances, since it would tangle the threads of Fate) is one of Chronos's main and most useful powers. One of its most notable uses is in ''Being a Green Mother'' when, after she agrees to [[spoiler:marry Satan]], Orb's use of the Llano to bring about TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt is undone this way.* {{Retcon}}: Satan in the first four books appeared to be pure, irredeemable evil. In the fifth book, he gets cast more sympathetically, and after that he's a NecessarilyEvil [[PunchClockVillain Punch Clock]] AntiVillain. ** Similarly, the succubus "Lila" sent to seduce Mars in book 4 turns out to be much more than a low-ranking HornyDevil: she was "Lilah", the same succubus that turned Parry to evil, and was also the "Lilith" of folklore who rejected Adam because he refused to acknowledge her as an equal.** In the original book, the office holder of Death is never called ''Thanatos''. The name only is given to him in the subsequent books, to match the fact that all the other Incarnations have a name based of Greek or Roman mythology.* RunawayFiance: Asian Clotho in ''With a Tangled Skein''; she runs away from her strict family because she doesn't like the husband they have chosen for her.* SapientSteed: Mortis.* SassyBlackWoman: The African-American Atropos in ''With a Tangled Skein''.* SatanIsGood: The sixth book's entire premise. ([[NecessarilyEvil Sort of.]])* SecretTestOfCharacter: ''And Eternity'' has one of these, when Orlene asks Thanatos to give her the soul of an infant to repair the damage done to her baby's. He takes her to a dumpster where an abandoned baby is about to be crushed, and tells Orlene to take the infant's soul. [[spoiler: She refuses and instead asks Thanatos to save the baby, even if it means failing her quest. Thanatos saves the infant, then explains that the test was to see whether Orlene would value a soul for its own sake, instead of as a means to an end, and agrees to get her a soul from an infant who couldn't be saved.]]* SelfInflictedHell: A person's faith determines what afterlife it gets. Atheist souls disintegrate upon death.** Becomes a bit of a FamilyUnfriendlyAesop, or possibly some variety of TakeThat at faith, when you realize that this means, as far as the universe of the books go, that those who believe will have to suffer for their sins... some intentional, many not... while atheists can be as evil as they want to be without any post-death repercussions.** On the other hand, atheists ''[[CessationOfExistence disintegrate]]''. But that's what they're expecting, they don't consider it any kind of punishment or bad thing. ** [[spoiler:It is this system that Satan is opposing through the sixth and seventh books.]]* SequelGap: ''Under a Velvet Cloak'' was published seventeen years after the previous book.* SexIsEvilAndIAmHorny: Judge Scott, with Vita and Orlene in ''...And Eternity''.* ShownTheirWork: The depiction of Morgan le Fey in ''Under a Velvet Cloak'' is neither outright evil (as her usual depiction) nor a poor misunderstood woman manipulated by others and unfairly condemned for her magical nature and adherence to pagan ways (as she is often reimagined as in modern works), instead being a cunning, sophisticated manipulator who works to get what she wants by often underhanded and dark ways but who also possesses emotional depth and well-roundedness and inspires some sympathy--in other words, much closer to her more complex (and conflicting) portrayals throughout Arthurian canon.* SignsOfTheEndTimes: Plague, earthquakes, floods, and volcanic eruptions are all the result of singing the Llano of Chaos, which ends all living things within weeks of it being sung. Although one could argue that these are less ''signs'' of the end and more the ''cause''.* SinsOfOurFathers: It turns out the malady in Gawain's family which eventually dooms Orlene's baby came about thanks to [[KingArthur the original Gawain]] [[SexIsEvil giving in to temptation with Kerena]] and thus failing to be pure enough to obtain the Holy Grail. * SpellMyNameWithAnS: The succubus "Lilah" goes by slightly different names at different points in the series, changing it depending on the persona she is assuming at the time.* StrictlyFormula: The first five books, to a lesser extent the sixth, follow rather linear path: We are introduced to the soon-to-be-incarnation, who because of some issue related to someone they are in love with, becomes an incarnation (often because they cannot be with the one they love). The new incarnation gets the run down of their office and the office's supporting cast. Meets the other incarnations and Satan. Uncovers Satan's scheme, and narrowly averts it, usually by learning the full extend of their duty as in incarnation usually using it as a bluff or threat against Satan (Death threatens to kill Satan, War threatens to start the end of days before Satan can win, Fate threatens to cut the strands of fate of all of Satan's minions).** Interestingly, the above plots even happen in the sixth book, where Satan is the protagonist. Instead of beating Satan, Satan needs to beat his successor to reclaim the office. The third book also mixes things up by having the whole thing happen twice - with Niobe first as Clotho then later when she returns as the middle aspect of fate, Lachesis.* SympatheticPOV: The sixth book.* TangledFamilyTree: A mild one as things go, but the Kaftan family still has to deal with time travel, prophecies, and temporary agelessness, leading to Niobe's daughter and first granddaughter being born about the same time, and Niobe herself screwing her second granddaughter's affair from the future. Come to think of it, we should be very grateful that Incarnations can't reproduce while in office.* ThemeTable* TimeStandsStill: Chronos and Thanatos can both do this, though Thanatos only because Chronos lets him.** Mars can do it as well and its implied that all Incarnations can do it. One of the Office of Time's duties is to allow to the other Incarnations to stop time when it is necessary for them to perform their duties.*** In fact most of Chronos's job seems to be helping the other Incarnations out when they need to fiddle with some matter of time or another. He does his other main job, making sure time, y'know, ''exists'', just by being in office.*** As, in fact, do most of the Incarnations. They make sure problems and important jobs are dealt with, and the small things happen automatically.* ToHellAndBack: After Cedric sacrifices himself to save Niobe, Niobe travels to Purgatory in an attempt to make a deal with death and bring her husband back to life, even if it means she must [[TakeMeInstead die in his place]]. Sadly, Death is not convinced that her "but I love him!" argument outweighs the fact that Niobe's survival is crucial to the betterment of mankind.** ''All'' the Incarnations visit Hell at some point in their careers. Usually it's a trap, sometimes it's just to negotiate.* TwelveCoinsPuzzle: Featured in the third book.* UglyGuyHotWife: Zane, while not exactly ugly, is average at best, while Luna is one of the most beautiful women of her generation. Zane was also destined to marry a comparably beautiful and rich woman before a shady salesman tricked him into giving up this destiny.* VaporWear: Gaea (the one before Orb) and Lilah. Gaea because she [[InnocentFanserviceGirl doesn't really see the point in clothing]], Lilah because she's [[HornyDevils a succubus]].* VillainousBreakdown: Satan in ''Wielding a Red Sword'' when [[spoiler: Mars threatens to start World War III and the Apocalypse early.]] Satan may have been faking, though.* VillainWithGoodPublicity: Satan advertises hell openly as a "Cool" place to hangout to entice mortals to sin and doom themselves. We find out that this is Satan's means of weeding out those who are latently evil, so as to properly classify them under the headings of "Good", "Evil", or "Neutral".* WhyIsntItAttacking: Zane wonders this about a monster Satan sent after him in ''On A Pale Horse''. He eventually works out that the monster isn't attacking him because it would create an impossible situation: Zane's soul is perfectly in balance until the end of his trial period in office. If the monster attacked and killed him, then Death would have to come and collect his soul...except Zane ''is'' Death. Since it's not possible for him to collect his own soul, the monster can't kill him.* WorldsMostBeautifulWoman: Niobe for her generation, her daughter Orb for her generation, and her granddaughter (via her son) Luna for ''her'' generation.* XanatosGambit: By the end, things end up arranged so that Satan gets what he wanted regardless of whether Good or Evil ends up in charge of the world. [[spoiler: If Good wins, God gets replaced by someone who is going to do the job properly. If Evil wins, Satan gets to take over. Either way, Hell stops getting souls who don't deserve to be there.]]** ''Under a Velvet Cloak'' reveals that the entire series was one for Nox, who was working to stop Erebus from destroying all of reality.* YouKillItYouBoughtIt: The office of Death is transferred this way. This is also one of the ways the office of Evil can be transferred.** Though Death moves on to the afterlife naturally, with some implication that he gets to go to Heaven as a reward for his service. The previous officeholder of Evil, however, immediately gets damned and can thus be called upon by his successor.* YouMustBeCold: Death gives Luna his cloak once.----